Charles Barkley speaks out on Ferguson

NBA analyst Charles Barkley has openly talked about racial issues in the past, and he addressed the grand jury’s decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson and subsequent rioting in an appearance on Philadelphia radio station 97.5 The Fanatic. Barkley echoed his controversial comments in October, criticizing segments of the black community, and condemned those who looted stores and burned down businesses.

“[Those expletives] who are looting, those aren’t real black people, those are scumbags. Real black people, they’re not out there looting. I just watched a great story on CNN where bunch of folks wouldn’t let them burn down an establishment, it was a great story…. But unfortunately, the way the media portrays a lot of black people, we only put the negative black people on television. We don’t put the good hard-working black people. That’s what I said and that’s what I meant. There’s a perception amongst some black people that if you’re not a thug or a hood rat, you don’t wear your pants down by your [expletive] you’re not black enough. And they’re always holding us back, plain and simple. And I a’int shutting up and I a’int backing down.”

Barkley also defended the police and said that some black neighborhoods would be the “wild wild west” if not for a police presence.

“I’m not saying who is right or wrong, I’m just hearing the true story that came out of the grand jury investigation…. Let me just say this. I think that we, we – I know I’m black, but I’m going to try to always be honest and fair – we have to be really careful with the cops. If it wasn’t for the cops, we’d be living in the wild wild west in out neighborhoods. We can’t pick out certain incidents that don’t go our way and act like the cops are all bad. I hate when we do that. Think about it. Do you know how bad some of these neighborhoods would be if it wasn’t for the cops? It’s always great to play monday morning quarterback…. Like I say, I don’t know what happened in Ferguson, nobody knows what happened. I want to take the time as a responsible person [and] read the grand jury statement.”

You can listen to Barkley’s entire interview below. (Warning: contains some profane language)

I found this on FTW and wanted to share:
%link%
For more great sports stories ...
*visit For The Win: https://www.ftw.usatoday.com
*follow @ForTheWin: https://www.twitter.com/forthewin
*like FTW on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/usatodayftw